Alice Pung - Author Interview Series

Alice Pung’s first book Unpolished Gem won the Australian Book Industry Book of the Year 2007, and was nominated for numerous other awards.

What authors/books did you read as a child? When did you first discover your love of books?

I first discovered my love of books when I started reading Judy Blume in Grade Four. I loved authors who wrote stories about children, teenagers and young adults who were entirely believable characters - with real thoughts (as opposed to ‘right’ thoughts and actions all the time), and yet a certain turn in circumstances would catapult them into making difficult decisions or take them to dangerous fantasy places. I read John Marsden, Sonya Hartnett, Robert Cormier, Lois Lowry and Paul Zindel.

When did you first realise you were a writer? What do you hope your readers will take away with them from reading your books?

I wrote when I was young as a way of taking myself away from a life I didn’t particular understand. Popular culture, and television, and even most of the books I was reading - aside from the authors mentioned above - were putting forward a certain vision of what things were like for young adults - it was either extremely depressing or peppily gleeful; nothing like growing up behind a carpet factory where you return home from your private school every day to an entirely different sort of world, populated by another language and set of rules and responsibilities. To me, books were an ultimate escape.

At that time, before the internet, I didn’t realise that books reflected only a small microcosm of the world. I thought they were the world, more real than my real life itself.

So I kept very long and detailed diaries to help me through certain quagmires. Most of my stories now are about small joys and disappointments, and I focus on characters more than anything else. What makes a person the way they are? I am interested in writing about families, because they are often the biggest influence on you before you have any sort of real power or independence of your own; and yet our nuclear lives are kept so private.

In my next book Her Father’s Daughter, I hope that readers will reflect on a generation that does not speak about the past and that hides things from their children to protect them. I hope that no one sees my work as ‘ethnic literature’ or reads every sentence I write as a reflection on ‘culture’, because I write about people, not concepts. And I hope that people can identify with the quirks and fallibilities of my characters, because I write about people I love.

That can make me feel very vulnerable at times, but what is the point of doing otherwise? Anais Nin once said: “If you do not breathe through writing, if you do not cry out in writing, or sing in writing, then don't write, because our culture has no use for it.”

Do you find it difficult to read purely for pleasure? Does everything you read come under your ‘writer’ microscope?

I love reading for pleasure. And I like to get carried away in a story, just as I did when I was younger. I try not to analyse other people’s work so much. It ruins a good story. It’s like being at a dinner party and someone is telling you a terrific tale. You don’t dampen it by interrupting, questioning or forcing them to follow a certain narrative track. It’s their tale and the reason it works so well is because it’s in their voice. However, if the voice is smarmy or if it’s annoying you, then you tend to nod politely and tune out after a short while.

Do you have to avoid reading certain types of fiction while writing your own? Does what you read while writing have an effect on what you write? In what way?

For my recent book, I read a lot - not literary works, though I did do that too - but psychiatric studies, history books, newspaper archives, personal narratives. Although my book is about my father, I wanted to get the historical context right. And what I read, I then had to transform from its discipline (history, psychiatry) into a relevant and personal story.

So for example, I learned that the carpet bombing operation on Cambodia was called ‘Operation Breakfast’. Why on earth would Nixon call the death of tens of thousands something so innocuous? Because it was meant to be a secret to be kept from the Western world. I remembered my father telling me about seeing a school bombed and going to see the bodies afterwards. And then I wondered what that would look like if we were imaging it through the lens of Nixon’s ‘Breakfast’: Fried eggs, fully cooked, inside the womb of a female teacher. A thin strip of meat hanging of a boys arm like Prosciutto ham.

So of course, everything I read in the research and planning of a book affects what I write.

Name five authors or books that have influenced or inspired your own writing in some way.

I love Anne Tyler for her magical evocation of domestic scenes which are so miniscule and yet so loaded with that familiar admixture of love and annoyance. I love Elie Wiesel for his personal narrative about the Holocaust. Helen Garner for not flinching from bad sights and yet finding that tiny dust mote of beauty and truth in sordid happenings. Toni Morrison for her strong voice with its undercurrent of anger at injustice.

If you were travelling and were told you could only take one book with you, what book would it be and why?

It depends whether I am travelling to do some writing or travelling for fun. If I was travelling on a holiday I would take a Jodi Picoult book. I think she’s an excellent writer and a page-turner. Or an inspiring biography (the last one I read was ‘Still Me’ by Christopher Reeve. It was beautiful). But if I was travelling as a writer, I would take my Collins Dictionary, as heavy as it is.

What makes a book ‘too good to put down’?

When I care about or am intrigued by the characters and want to know their ultimate fate. I don’t care if they are holy saints or unpleasant tossers. If the characters are struggling with something that matters to them, than that’s worth reading.

What makes you put down a book without finishing it?

When characters come to quick and easy epiphanies. That pees me off.

Do you have a favourite author? Who is it and what is it about their writing that draws you to them?

I have many favourite authors! I can’t narrow it down to one. It would not be fair.

If you had to list them, what would be your ‘top ten’ reads of all time (excluding the classics) and why?

Nicole Krauss, The History of Love

Marcus Zuzak, The Book Thief

Elie Wiesel, Night

Ajahn Brahm, Who Ordered this Truckload of Dung

Shaun Tan, The Red Tree

John Pilger, Tell Me No Lies

Primo Levi, If this Is A Man

Dr Suess, Hop on Pop

Paul Zindel, A Begnolia for Mrs. Applebaum

Robert Cormier, Fade

You’ll just have to read them to find out why I love these books. :-)

What was your 2010 ‘best read’? What was it that made it number one?

We Need to Talk about Kevin by Lionel Shriver. I should have read it ages ago.

And of course, Shirley Shackleton’s The Circle of Silence, which won the Walkley Book of the Year last year.

What do you think of the non-traditional publishing methods – eBooks etc? Do you think the new technology will encourage more people to read? Do you think there’s a future for print books?

Although I hope new technologies will encourage more people to read, I think people will always love the feel of real books printed on trees.

Also the danger of new technologies is that people now don’t have to actually read a book to be able to write a review on it online or offer their opinion, which was once confined to your circle of friends. Literary criticism is a real skill (many writers, including myself, lack it) and I hope people will become more discerning before they misjudge a book by its real or e-cover!

Alice's second book, Growing Up Asian in Australia, is studied as a HSC and VCE text, and her latest book, the newly released Her Father’s Daughter will be launched at this years Melbourne Writers Festival. Find out more about Alice here.

Jon Bauer - Author Interview Series

Jon Bauer's first novel, Rocks in the Belly, was published this time last year and received endorsements and accolades from other writers, such as J M Coetzee, M J Hyland and David Malouf, and literary critics alike. Rocks in the Belly is certainly a book not to miss.

What authors/books did you read as a child? When did you first discover your love of books?

The Secret Seven is the first book that grasped me. I’d been afraid to read before that, having found myself without the mettle to sustain interest to the end. I still struggle to do that.

When did you first realise you were a writer? What do you hope your readers will take away with them from reading your books?

I owned the title of writer long before I was published. It’s a verb more than a noun, and I was certainly doing it. What I want readers to take from my books is some small reunification with themselves. A lost memory, pain, or love. Something of a reconnection with self and with their place as not alone in the world.

Do you find it difficult to read purely for pleasure? Does everything you read come under your ‘writer’ microscope?

Reading is largely ruined yes. I wonder about chefs and gynaecologists too. What happens to their leisure time as a result of their work? There are times when a book can burst my need to analyse, but that’s rare. Film still works on me though, it’s kind of my literature these days.

Do you have to avoid reading certain types of fiction while writing your own? Does what you read while writing have an effect on what you write? In what way?

I tend not to read fiction when I’m writing. Not out of choice, it’s just the way I feel. I read non fiction though. I don’t worry too much about things affecting my work though. It doesn’t feel fragile or finite to me that way it does with some people. I’m the same with discussing my work-in-progress. Some are deeply superstitious about that, as if they’ll scare their novel away. But I think discussing it helps me, plus it opens others up to making offerings. They tell stories that relate to mine, and that takes me in new, richer directions.

Name five authors or books that have influenced or inspired your own writing in some way.

Carver taught me to be sparing – to allow the reader space. Even if he also annoyed me as a writer. Greene spoke to my need to write with a gentle melancholy. Salinger inspired me to work hardest on my dialogue. Brett Easton Ellis reminded me how glorious it is to allow your prose to crackle and play. And Iain M Banks spoke to my imagination. Anything can happen. One more: Ray Bradbury as well as Stephen King wrote books on writing that agreed with everything I had found out myself, or aspired to in the way I approached creativity.

If you were travelling and were told you could only take one book with you, what book would it be and why?

The book I’m working on. Sorry, but nothing keeps me company like writing. Reading is less of a comfort.

What makes a book ‘too good to put down’?

To attempt a summary: a book must be complete – offering narrative; a sense of momentum; language to savour; a sense of place; pace; a tendency to offer insight or some solace that your struggle is a common struggle; the space to project your own feelings and ideas on characters and plot… I could go on and on.

What makes you put down a book without finishing it?

A book where the brushstrokes are more obvious than the image depicted.

Do you have a favourite author? Who is it and what is it about their writing that draws you to them?

Graham Greene. I just reread The End of The Affair. It's almost perfect. I love his honesty in that book, his delicious prose, his bravery, and the way he blends narrative with language with, well all the elements. He has a quiet melancholy and a cold insight that is addictive.

If you had to list them, what would be your ‘top ten’ reads of all time (excluding the classics) and why?

Asking someone for their favourite books is like asking someone for their favourite country. I just like to travel. Don’t make me choose.

What was your 2010 ‘best read’? What was it that made it number one?

Reading By Moonlight, Brenda Walker. A searingly brutal yet beautiful depiction of the comfort that reading brought Walker while she faced cancer.

What do you think of the non-traditional publishing methods – eBooks etc? Do you think the new technology will encourage more people to read? Do you think there’s a future for print books?

I don’t think any of us can predict what will happen, but I think story will always be a part of our culture in some form. Content will always be needed, on what platform, who can say. I plan to lie down and let the wave come.

Jon's short fiction has been broadcast on national radio; performed at Melbourne’s Arts Centre; featured in The Daily Telegraph UK; The Sleepers Almanac (Aus/NZ);Torpedo Literary Journal, and had repeated success in The Bridport Prize – the world’s largest open writing competition.

Find out more about Jon here.

Rebecca James - Author Interview Series

Rebecca James is the author of Beautiful Malice. If you haven't read it yet I recommend you do.

What authors/books did you read as a child? When did you first discover your love of books?

I can’t remember what I was reading as a small child (if I was reading at all) but the first book I remember really having an impact was a book called The Shape of Three by Lilith Norman. It’s about twins who are separated at birth because of a hospital fire. I just loved it! I’d really like to find a copy of it now so that I can reread it (not sure how it will stand up against an adult reading, though) and also so I can give it to my kids and see if they love it as much as I did.

In my teens I loved a variety of different authors including Ruth Park and VC Andrews and when my parents weren’t looking, Sidney Sheldon.

When did you first realise you were a writer? What do you hope your readers will take away with them from reading your books?

I first started writing fiction in my thirties when I had four young sons. It seems a strange time to take up something new like that, but I found motherhood so intense and demanding that I really craved some kind of creative outlet of my own that had nothing to do with changing nappies or mashing banana. Once I started writing I realised that I enjoyed it, and also that I was quite good at it - I was hooked!

Do you find it difficult to read purely for pleasure? Does everything you read come under your ‘writer’ microscope?

I have no problem reading for pleasure at all and I always have a novel or two on the go. I guess most writers can’t help but be a bit critical when they read...but then again, I think I was quite a critical reader before I considered myself a writer. I was always very conscious of whether I thought a novel worked or not, and if not why not.

One thing that has changed in my reading habits (although I’m not sure whether it’s just because I’m getting older or because I now write myself) is that I no longer force myself to finish a book if I’m not enjoying it. There’s just so much out there that I want to read, and I know I’m not ever possibly going to be able to read all of it - there seems very little point in persevering with a book I find boring.

Do you have to avoid reading certain types of fiction while writing your own? Does what you read while writing have an effect on what you write? In what way?

Hmmm - no, I haven’t yet felt the need to avoid reading a certain type of fiction while I’m writing. I guess I might though if I felt that another book had a premise or element that was very very similar to my own. Fortunately this hasn’t happened to me yet.

Name five authors or books that have influenced or inspired your own writing in some way.

I always find the 'influence' part if this question very difficult to answer. I know that I have been influenced but I’m not at all conscious of how or by whom.

I am, however, constantly inspired by the work of other writers! I’m often amazed by the talent and insight that goes into the fiction I’m reading and sometimes it can inspire me to work harder, and yet at other times it can make me despair, and think ‘Oh, what’s the point, I’ll never be as brilliant as that!’

There’s a bit in a Richard Yates book (I’m pretty sure it’s Easter Parade) where a woman is observing her sister. The woman being observed is reading a book and eating at the same time. Yates describes the way she turns the page, licking her finger, leaving crumbs on the corner of the page. I can’t adequately describe it (and I may have the scene all muddled in my head!), but I remember how it struck me at the time as such a magic bit of writing, it really captured this small, domestic scene perfectly, and managed to be both revolting and touching all at once. Writing like that both inspires and humbles me and if I could manage to capture one or two moments like that in my entire writing career I think I’d be satisfied.

(And now that I’ve answered this question I realise I didn’t answer it properly at all. I didn’t even notice the ‘five’ part of it. Sorry Lisa!)

If you were travelling and were told you could only take one book with you, what book would it be and why?

If it was the kind of travelling where I would be flying and busy and likely to be tired I would probably take something easy to read and fun, a good thriller or a mystery but nothing too taxing or serious. I find it hard to concentrate when I travel. (Which is probably because I have four kids - either they are travelling with me, in which case I’m busy nagging them and organising, or they are not and I’m missing them and feeling blue.)

What makes a book ‘too good to put down’?

I don’t think you can single out one element that makes a book 'unputdownable'. It can’t just be a great plot because without good characterisation a great plot can feel completely hollow. I guess it’s a combination of many elements, great plot, believable characterisation and clear writing, that makes a good book 'unputdownable'. But because reading is such a subjective experience what makes these different elements ‘great, believable and good’ is going to vary from reader to reader.

What makes you put down a book without finishing it?

Boredom.

Do you have a favourite author? Who is it and what is it about their writing that draws you to them?

I love a lot of different authors and my answer to this question varies depending on what I’ve recently been reading and, ah, how well my (dodgy!) memory is functioning when I’m asked. My favourites, for today at least, include Helen Garner, Anne Tyler, Richard Yates, Lionel Shriver, Roxana Robinson, Sue Miller and Elizabeth Berg.

And why do I love them? Hmm. I think it’s mainly because they all write about the domestic and everyday and they do it beautifully and in a way that is honest and critical of human beings and all our foibles without being superior or smug. There’s a tender understanding of humanity to their writing and while they are all brilliant at dissecting the more shameful side of what it means to be human you never get the sense that they’re sneering at people. I like that.

What was your 2010 ‘best read’? What was it that made it number one?

One Day by David Nicholls. I just loved it. It made me laugh and it made me cry and I stayed up late to finish it.

What do you think of the non-traditional publishing methods – eBooks etc? Do you think the new technology will encourage more people to read? Do you think there’s a future for print books?

I certainly hope there’s a future for print books, it would be a real shame, I think, to lose the tangible beauty of paper books. Having said that I’m not afraid of e-technology at all. Obviously there are some big changes taking place in the world of publishing right now and I think these changes are both exciting and inevitable. It can also feel quite frightening, of course, because change is frightening and we don’t know what the future holds. But human beings do insist on evolving and inventing things and making progress and a side effect of that is that we constantly have to learn to adapt. But it’s all good really - who wants things to remain static? How dull would that be?! I think all the new technology is pretty cool and wonderful, it’s good fun and it keeps us all on our toes, and I think it just proves how inventive and exciting and imaginative people are!

Rebecca has worked as a waitress, a kitchen designer, an English teacher in both Indonesia and Japan, a barmaid and (most memorably) a minicab telephone-operator in London.

Find out more about Rebecca here.